


Pandora's Box (is full of curses and one blessing)

by BowAndDagger



Category: Bleach
Genre: Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Hopeful Ending, I tried to write romance, Ichigo is only ever mentionned, Key word being tried, Kisuke is mooning, PoV Urahara Kisuke, bit of angst, but he hasn't realised it yet, can be read as both
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-06-11 11:59:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15315033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BowAndDagger/pseuds/BowAndDagger
Summary: The source of Urahara Kisuke's problems is his own reiastu. From the moment his power awakened it only got him into trouble.But it also allowed him to meet the source of his hope.





	Pandora's Box (is full of curses and one blessing)

**Author's Note:**

> My participation for the UraIchi Prompt Challenge #1!  
> I tried, but it seems I can't write romance to save my life. So have some gen/pre-slash!  
> (I wanted to post this yesterday but life got in the way...)  
> Enjoy!
> 
> Prompt:  
> “You don’t believe in anything.”  
> “I believe in you.”  
>  _Les Misérables_ \- Victor Hugo

 

Urahara Kisuke never believed in anything or anyone.

 

Well, no; that’s not entirely true.

If anything, he believed in Benihime and in his own ability to get out of trouble – whether he was the one to create said trouble or not.

 

But as a rule, he didn’t believe in anything. Not even in himself.

(Except, maybe, in Central 46’s “gift” to always take bad decisions. And being full of egoistical senile old coots.

But Central 46 being a hindrance was more a fact of life than a true belief.)

 

He tried to trust people instead, with varying degree of success.

 

He trusted Yoruichi not to send him to his death.

 

He trusted Tessai not to blow them sky-high when experimenting on kido spells.

 

He trusted – a bit, not much, but enough – the Gotei 13. (And look where it got him…)

 

He trusts the Visored. He trusts Yoruichi and Tessai. He trusts Benihime.

But that’s it.

 

He doesn’t _believe_.

 

Because believing means having hope; and Kisuke lost his hope a long, long time ago.

He lost his hope when he opened his soul to his reiatsu, when he accepted he was different, he had power and could use it.

The source of everything that caused him pain can be put down as his own soul, his own reiatsu and his role as a Shinigami.

(But it’s also where he found hope.)

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

He lost hope for the first time in the Rukongai, where no one would take a hungry child in their care.

Because everyone knew that hunger means having reiatsu.

And children with reiatsu and no control are Hollow-bait.

A death sentence.

 

(Death follows him everywhere he goes.)

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

He lost all hope when he was in the Onmitsukido, where his hands got soaked in blood and there was no end to the killings.

The trust is, he followed Yoruichi into the Stealth Corps for several reasons, and none had to do with him wanting, or even liking, to kill.

He wanted to protect his friend. He wanted to prove himself, to be useful.

He wanted the trill of a successful infiltration, the adrenaline when he got busted; he wanted to spy, to observe, to be the best of the best.

He never – oh gods, “never” doesn’t even cover his feelings on the matter – wanted to kill so much.

 

(But he trusted Yoruichi, his friend. He trusted in her ability and willingness to keep him alive, to not send him on a suicide mission.

So, despite everything else and because he was protecting Yoruichi, he stayed.)

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

He lost hope – the last tread, the one that had been oh so slowly growing when he got out of the Second Division; even if being a Captain was never on the list of things he wanted to be – for the last time when he was framed for the Hollowfication of the Visored.

It’s self-explanatory enough.

(He believed enough in the Gotei 13 to think he’d get a trial before being condemned. He believed in them enough to think they wouldn’t exile over half of their high-ranked officers.

He was wrong.)

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

“Hope” after that is non-existent.

He knows Yoruichi still hopes she’ll be able to go back to her life in Seireitei, Tessai hopes he’ll stop being a fugitive… And even with their mutterings and curses, Kisuke knows the Visored still hope to, one day, be able to go back home.

Kisuke can’t even summon a smidgen of their hope.

So he invents, experiments, fails and gets back to works. He trains, spars and create new technics until he’s so exhausted he can’t stand.

He prays.

 

He gets a miracle.

 

Finally, at last, Aizen is defeated. The Visored get pardoned and some go back to Soul Society.

But that’s not important.

Kisuke being hopeful, Kisuke _believing in someone_ , is.

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

Kurosaki Ichigo is someone the like of which Kisuke never expected to meet; in fact, he never expected someone like Ichigo to _exist._

Not just on a biological level, Shinigami-Quincy hybrids are rare but they do exist. And the Visored are proof that Hollows can intermingles with souls safely enough.

But on a personal level. Oh the boy has flaws, who doesn’t have some? But he’s _good._

And Kisuke never saw it coming.

 

He never saw it coming when Ichigo forgave him for putting his life and his friends’ lives in danger.

And not only did the boy – “ _young man”_ , Benihime whispers, her voice sly and amused. She knows something he hasn’t realised yet – forgave him, he also continued to come to Kisuke for help!

Kisuke never expected to meet someone as…as…as _Kurosaki Ichigo_. (And yes, he was using his name as an adjective because hell if that doesn’t describe him perfectly well!)

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

(Hope began to grow.

A little flame, so fragile and yet so strong, slowly burning in his chest.

Kisuke didn’t pay it any attention, too busy with worrying over their combined ability to take down Aizen.)

 

In Ichigo, Kisuke found a student, a friend, someone who could grow to be his equal, an _inspiration._

The source of his hope.

 

And everything was almost taken from him before he even realised it when Ichigo gave up his power and two-third of his soul to put down Aizen.

 

Kisuke watches as Ichigo sleeps, face marred by a rictus of pain as his remaining reiatsu slowly withers away.

He did this.

He _caused_ this.

Kisuke never hated himself more.

 

So he gets to work.

Ichigo showed him that the word “impossible” didn’t apply to him; so finding a way to give him his power back is possible.

Kisuke will find it.

 

( _He believes_.)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


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